Writing scientific documents

A random collection of thoughts

Watch your use of past tense. There is a place for it, but in science not as much as most people use. When describing how a polymerase behaves, described how it behaves right now.

Yesterday the promoter melted region was important. Today it is too. It is a process that will be true tomorrow as well. >>Present tense.

“The front door of Lederle allows [present tense] people with a key card to enter”  It also allowed people yesterday and last year, but when describing the door, we describe it in the present tense.  

“I entered Lederle yesterday” – something you did in the past. “The gel was run at 80V” – past tense.

The gel data tell us that something cool is happening (present tense). It is a property of that data.